My Birthday

From Liu Huang Family Blog

My birthday started out with Steve and Tyler taking me out to a nice out of the way Italian restaurant in Jhubei for lunch (our day starts late you see).  The decor was eclectic, cozy, cute.  They had a full functioning bar, so I ordered a Green Apple Martini...  What's in that, they ask?  Oh, nevermind.  How about a cosmo?  We can do that... Oh good. Ten minutes later, Steve points out the waiter who just came in the door has a pint of cranberry juice in his hand.  Makes me smile....  Reminds us of the time in London when I ordered a Milk Tea at an Indian restaurant years ago and same scenario... waiter comes back with a pint of milk.  It must be a gift of mine.  The cosmo finally comes 20 minutes later.  Ahh... it hits the spot.

Had a lovely day... For dinner, met grandpa, Da Gio Gio, Er Ar Yi for dinner at Ding Tai Fong.  Everyone was in a jolly mood... So good to see them...  I was "sharing" with them how at nearly four years old, Tyler now has an opinion of his own about EVERYTHING.  They chuckle, and remind me of when I was little recounting the story when I was angry at Grandpa and secretly threw his watch into the garbage can.  I've heard this story a million times, but it makes me smile to see them reminisce.  

So for dessert we go to our favorite French Bakery, Paul's.  In the picture above, you see Tyler can't wait for his chocolate Macaroons...  We wandered around the streets of Taipei, (really miss that about being in NYC) for a while, and took the High Speed Rail home.   

So for my birthday wishes, I had three   1. was to be able spend more time with Steve and 2. for Tyler's health.  3. keep in touch with loved ones more.  One already came true... Tyler's ear infection is nearly gone so we can avoid surgery.  Hallelujah!!  What a great way to start out my 36th year!!

From Liu Huang Family Blog

From Liu Huang Family Blog

Chinese Medicine

Last week, I took Tyler to a Chinese medical doctor in Taipei.  (is this the term in english?)  Anyhow, the doctor came highly recommended by a friend.  And most importantly, my friend's son avoided getting tubes in his ear after getting treated by this particular doctor.  So I have high hopes.

This is really my first experience with Chinese medicine.  It took me by surprise that all the doctor did was to "take his pulse", looked at his tongue, and asked about bowel movements.  That was all before she wrote her prescription.

So when Tyler finished his course of Antibiotics today, I started him on the Chinese meds.  In my mind, I was dreading negotiations with him after every meal explaining why he needs to take the "strange smelly" medicine.  So to my pleasant surprise he drank the concoction within a blink of an eye.... saying it "tastes a little bad, but it's sweet."  The honey added in seem to do the trick.

February 2009

For about a week and a half now, I had Tyler stay home to get over his hacking cough and to avoid catching anything else so his ear infection will go away.  For the last few months most our days are spent shuttling from class to class, play dates, trips to Taichung or Taipei, so it was a nice change of pace just to stay put.  But after the umpteenth puzzle, the umpteenth story... Tyler and I had cabin fever.  I was still worried and reluctant to let Tyler go back to classes since his ear infection hasn't gone away, but Steve convinced me I couldn't keep Tyler in a bubble.  So back to classes he went last week.  Here are some pictures of our week back:

 

A beautiful day at Four Ways Farm in Miao Li - It felt like spring. Feeding the geese and Koi fish.

From Feb2009

Tyler's caterpillar - first day back in English class.

From Feb2009

Lantern Festival

From Feb2009

Teacher Pei Yu introduced Andy Warhol to the kids. Here's Tyler's rendition of pop art (on left).  Pop Art is called "pu pu" or literally translated "common common"- something new I learned.  Under Marilyn's picture it says Andy Warhol, the godfather of "pu pu".  =)

From Feb2009

Took Tyler to the Warhol exhibit at CKS Memorial.  I'm not a big fan of Warhol, but thought it would be interesting for Tyler to experience his first art exhibit.   

From Feb2009

Family Vacation to Japan over Chinese New Year

We spent Chinese New Year this year in Kyushuu, Japan.  Steve's parents met us over there, and we spent a week travelling around the southern most island of Japan (mostly by train and bus).  We travelled around on our own and not with a tour, which meant it was more expensive and had to rely on my so-so Japanese.  But it also meant that we had more time to do some exploring in each of the four towns/cities we visited.  

It snowed on our second day there, enough snow so that Tyler got to experience making his first snowball and do some tobogganing.  I haven't seen snow in four years, so it was a real treat for me too.  Kurogawa and Yufuin are towns famous for their hotsprings so we spent quite a lot of time soaking in their mineral baths.  Some of them were outdoors so you can actually look up and see the stars.

We had a wonderful time-- Steve said that this was probably one of the vacations in a long time where he was a bit sad to leave.  

On not such a positive note, Tyler developed a cold towards the end of the trip.  When we took him to the pediatrician back home, she said he had developed a ear infection-- I really hope the antibiotics will do the trick this time.  Otherwise we will need to reinsert the tubes all over again!!  Wish us luck...

 

Christmas Party

Every year the group of Moms, we call "coffee morning" get together and celebrate Christmas with our families.  It's become a bit of tradition really.  The past two years it's been held at at hotel, but this year we opted to do potluck at our friend Sarah's house.   To be honest, there was a lot of running around the week before and organizing involved, but it was all worth it.  We had a feast of turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, mulled wine, plus plenty of christmas baking-- all home made!

Also part of the tradition is the appearance of Santa Claus, which is definitely the highlight for Tyler.  We had a last minute "personnel" change, which caused a bit of scrambling at the end to find the costume, and a willing Santa. In the end, we had a wonderful Santa, who "ho ho ho'd" and handed out gifts to the delight of all the kids.

At the beginning of the week, Tyler wrote a letter to Santa with the help of mom of course. When I asked what he wanted to say, I thought his response was very sweet... "I want to say Happy New Year Santa..."  Well, mom explained that Santa needed some help with picking the right gift for him, so we did add "I would like an Ultraman Seven."  And lo and behold, that was the gift Tyler received... After unwrapping the present, Tyler pointed out a price tag (which Mom forgot to remove) "Look, Santa got this from Sogo!"  Hope he hasn't put two and two together.  =P

Had some bad luck and all my pictures from the Christmas party were erased... so here's a link to Sarah's Christmas Party pictures.  Hope everyone is enjoying the Holiday Season!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/sarah.buerkle/CoffeeMorningAndXmasParty2008?authkey=LmO3DW_ecCQ&feat=email#

Out Come the Ear Tubes

Tomorrow morning, Tyler is scheduled for doctor's appointment to take out the tubes in his ear.  The tubes in the right ear came out on it's own but the ear drum needs a little help to heal.  The left one is still in and no sign of it coming out.  Unfortunately Tyler won't let the Doctor reach in their with his tweezers to grab them, so Tyler needs to go under again....  Basically go through the same process more than a year ago when he had the procedure.  To make this as untraumatic as possible, we haven't told him he'll be going into the surgical room.

But today we had a wonderful day spent doing some Christmas baking at our friend's Sarah's house.  Making sugar cookies and gingerbread men.  The moms had as much fun as the kiddos decorating the Gingerbread Men and Women.  The cookies are for the Christmas party on Saturday (yup this Saturday.  A bit early, but necessary given everyone's travel plans).  Really looking forward to the event.  Being in Taiwan, you're not bombarded with the Christmas Carols playing in the stores, and Christmas decorations in store windows, or even having Thanksgiving Holiday to remind you that Christmas is around the corner.  So you really need to create your own little Christmas winter wonderland.

Here's a link to more pictures from cookie baking...

http://picasaweb.google.com/sarah.buerkle/CookieMaking?authkey=9Rw-GIqGaqc&feat=email#

Car Troubles

Over the weekend on the way to meet Grandpa for dinner in Taipei, we were hit on the highway by an unknown object.  It was pretty dark (around 7pm) and it came from the side, so to this time we still don't know what hit us.  Luckily we're ok, but our new car was dented pretty badly headlights + side panel+ bumper.   Tyler was sleeping so he didn't really experience it.  For insurance purposes, we went to the police station to file a report which took forever.  It was almost 2am by the time we stepped into the house.  Add this to my car batteries dying, and towed to the pound earlier last week, this is car incident #3.  Like my friend Sarah advised, it's time to go "bai bai" at the temple to try to ward off any more bad luck.